Dr. P.M.H. Atwater's
Near-Death Experience Research

P.M.H. Atwater, L.H.D.,
Ph.D. (Hon.) survived three death events that produced three
different near-death experiences in 1977. She is one of the original
researchers of the near-death phenomenon, having begun her work
in 1978. Today, her contribution to the field of near-death studies
is considered on par with those of Raymond Moody and Ken Ring. Her
first two books, Coming Back
to Life and
Beyond the Light, are considered the "Bibles" of the
NDE. With the publication of
Future Memory, she has expanded her work into areas of brain
development that call for a reconsideration of what is presently
known about transformation consciousness. She has done extensive
research into the after-effects and
the analysis of common elements of
the NDE. Her research into children's
NDEs led to her writing,
Children of the New Millennium.
Her latest book, The
Complete Idiot's Guide to NDEs, is in my opinion the most comprehensive
book on the subject of NDEs to date. The following are P.M.H. Atwater's insights into
the NDE from her book, Beyond the Light:

1. What It Feels Like To Die

Any pain to be suffered comes first. Instinctively
you fight to live. That is automatic.

It is inconceivable to the conscious mind that
any other reality could possibly exist beside the Earth-world of
matter bounded by time and space. We are used to it. We have been
trained since birth to live and thrive in it. We know ourselves
to be ourselves by the external stimuli we receive. Life tells us
who we are and we accept its telling. That, too, is automatic and
to be expected.

Your body goes limp. Your heart stops. No more
air flows in or out. You lose sight, feeling and movement -
although the ability to hear goes last. Identity ceases. The "you"
that you once were becomes only a memory.

There is no pain at the moment of death. Only
peaceful silence ... calm ... quiet. But you still exist. It is
easy not to breathe. In fact, it is easier, more comfortable, and
infinitely more natural not to breathe than to breathe.

The biggest surprise for most people in dying
is to realize that dying does not end life. Whether darkness or
light comes next, or some kind of event, be it positive, negative,
or somewhere in between, expected or unexpected, the biggest surprise
of all is to realize you are still you.

You can still think, you can still remember,
you can still see, hear, move, reason, wonder, feel, question, and
tell jokes - if you wish.

You are still alive, very much alive. Actually,
you're more alive after death than at any time since you were last
born. Only the way of all this is different; different because you
no longer wear a dense body to filter and amplify the various sensations
you had once regarded as the only valid indicators of what constitutes
life. You had always been taught one has to wear a body to live.

If you expect to die when you die you will be
disappointed.

The only thing dying does is help you release,
slough off, and discard the "jacket" you once wore
(more commonly referred to as a body). When you die you lose
your body. That's all there is to it. Nothing else is lost.

You are not your body. It is just something you
wear for a while, because living in the Earth realm is infinitely
more meaningful and more involved if you are encased in its trappings
and subject to its rules.

2. What Death Is

There is a step-up of energy at the moment of
death, an increase in speed as if you are suddenly vibrating faster
than before.

Using radio as an analogy, this speed-up is comparable
to having lived all your life at a certain radio frequency when
all of a sudden someone or something comes along and flips the dial.
That flip shifts you to different
frequency. The original
frequency where you once existed is still there. It did not change.
Everything is still just the same as it was. Only you changed, only
you speeded up to allow entry into the next radio frequency on the
dial.

As is true with all
radios and radio stations, there can be bleed-overs or
distortions of transmission signals due to interference
patterns. These can allow or force frequencies to coexist or
co-mingle for indefinite periods of time. Normally, most shifts
up the dial are fast and efficient; but, occasionally, one can
run into interference, perhaps from a strong emotion, a sense of
duty, or a need to fulfill a vow, or keep a promise.

This interference could allow coexistence of
frequencies for a few seconds, days, or even years (perhaps explaining
hauntings); but, sooner or later, eventually, every given vibrational
frequency will seek out or be nudged to where it belongs.

You fit your particular spot on the dial by your
speed of vibration. You cannot coexist forever where you do not
belong.

Who can say how many spots there are on the dial
or how many frequencies there are to inhabit? No one knows.

You shift frequencies in dying. You switch over
to life on another wavelength. You are still a spot on the dial
but you move up or down a notch or two.

You don't die when you die. You shift your consciousness
and speed of vibration.

That's all death is ... a shift.

3. What Existence Is

Time and space, as we know them, exist only on
the Earth realm. When you leave the Earth realm, you leave such
constraints.

There are realms and dimensions of existence
without number, ranging from the slower, more dense vibrations of
form to higher, finer streams of non-energetic currents. And there
is more beyond that, realities that cannot be measured or described
in the convenience of mathematics or mind-play.

Hell refers to levels of negative thought-forms
that reside in close proximity to the Earth realm. It is where we
go to work out, or remain within, our hang-ups, addictions, fears,
guilt, angers, rage, regrets, self-pity, arrogance, or whatever
else blocks us from the power of our own light. We stay in hell (and
there are many divisions to this vibratory level) for however long
best serves our development. There is no condemnation here, only
the outworking of our own misjudgments, mistakes, misalignments,
or misappropriations (what some people call sin). In hell, we have
the opportunity to either revel in our folly or come to grips with
the reality of consequences - that every action has a reaction,
what is inflicted on another can be returned in kind. We experience
the "flip side" of our despair or our demands, "living
through" the extremes of whatever we dread. This is not a "punishment
for our sins" but a confrontation with any distortion of our
sense of values and priorities. We do not leave until we have changed
our attitudes and perceptions.

Heaven is a term used to
describe levels of positive thought-forms that reside in close
proximity to the Earth realm. It is where we go to recognize or
enjoy our worth, talents, abilities, joys, courage, generosity,
caring, empathy, giving-ness, virtue, cheer, diligence,
thoughtfulness, patience, loving kindness, or whatever else
reveals the power of our own light. We stay in heaven (and there
are many divisions to this vibratory level) for however long
best serves our development. There is a sense of benefit here,
as if one has found one's true home and all is well (what some
people call "recess", or a time of rewards). In heaven, we have
the opportunity to assess our progress as a soul, to evaluate
pros and cons and outcomes, to remember all truths including
that of our real identity. We experience the glory of love and
the power of forgiveness.

This is not an end point, but, rather, the realization
of our purpose in creation's story, how we fit, and what possibilities
for future growth and learning exist. We do not leave until we are
ready for our next advancement either in the world of form or beyond
it.

No one knows how vast creation is ... only that
it has always been and will always be. Shapes and embodiments change
and alter, substance is recycled, but existence exists, as does
energy.

Existence is life, never ending and ongoing,
forever and ever eternal. Yet its only true movement (without the
distortion time and space give) is expansion and contraction, as
if the existence that exists were capable of breathing. What appears
as a progression, a time-line of starts and stops and ever-changing
variations, is but an overleaf, an illusion, that helps us to focus
on whatever spot on the dial we currently inhabit so we will accomplish
what we set out to do (or at least have an opportunity to), and
not be distracted by The Truth that undergirds reality.

Using television as an analogy, the picture we
enjoy seeing, the progression of a storyline with characters acting
out a script, is but a trick of perception. What exists, what is
really there, is quite literally one electron at a time (with black
and white, and three at a time with color) fired from the back
of the television tube to the screen to be illuminated once it hits
the screen as a tiny dot. The continuous barrage of electrons-turned-into-dots
creates the appearance of images, as scanning lines roll from top
to bottom separating information coming in (new dots) from
information fading out (old dots). You adjust the vertical
hold on your set, not to remove strange bars appearing in the picture,
but to place all screen activity within the range of your own perceptual
preference. A television picture tube is nothing more than a "gun"
that fires electrons at a screen. Your mind connects the electron
dots into the picture images you think you see, while it totally
ignores the true reality of what actually undergirds the operation.
The way television operates, at least in our daily experience of
it, is an illusion.

Existence is a lot like
television. What exists, what really exists, can't be fathomed
by how it appears to operate or what it seems to be.

4. The Realness of God

God is.

God is the one presence, the one power, the one
force and source of all. There are no competitors to God, no reality
existent outside of God. God is omnipotent (all powerful),
omniscient (all knowing), and omnipresent (present everywhere).
There is no place where God is not, simply because nothing exists
without God.

God is neither a man nor a woman nor a thing.

God is no one's father or mother or benefactor.
These terms are used only to help us understand relationships - ours
to God - not to establish a more human type of parentage. We
use such terms as a matter of convenience or because it is comforting
to do so. We call ourselves children of God because we do not know
what else to call ourselves, and it seems as good a term as any
to use. We are made in the image of God, not in the sense of physical
appearance, but with respect to the power of our souls and the potential
of our minds. God is the Creator; we are co-creators. It would be
more appropriate and more in line with Truth, if we called ourselves
extensions of God or, perhaps, thoughts in the Mind of God. It would
even be appropriate to use another name for God, like The Force,
The One, The All, The Is-ness, The One Mind, The Source, or whatever
conveys that sense of deity that is without limitation or boundary,
beyond what can be comprehended.

While God is more than any name, protocol, hierarchy,
concept, or grandiosity could describe or define; God truly is as
near as our next breath - as close as our next thought. We are part
of God and existent with God. A belief in separation, that we could
possibly exist and have our being apart from God, is the only real
sin. This belief is of our own making. God has not decreed separation;
this we did ourselves by our own perception that somehow, some way,
we could transcend That Which Cannot Be Transcended.

God is not dependent on our belief, for our belief
or disbelief in God does not affect God - only us.

God is not a member of any church or religion.
It is the churches and the religions that are members within the
vastness and the glory that is God. There is no one religion just
as there is no "chosen" people or person, nor any single
way of regarding what cannot be fully comprehended. We are all "sons"
of God in the sense that we are all souls of God's creation, without
gender, without form, without nationality, complete and whole and
perfect as we explore the never-endingness of God's wonderment.
A spark from the essence of All God Is resides in each and every
one of us has an unbreakable connection, that thread or cord that
ensures we remain a part of That Which We Could Never Leave.

The splendorous joy of recognizing and acknowledging
our special-ness, our greatness, as creations of God and as co-creators
with God, is akin to being engulfed by overwhelming floodtides of
God's Glorious Love.

5. The Big Picture

There is no sense of "crime and punishment"
in God's Light, only the clear, complete, and total knowing that
you are loved unconditionally and fully - right now and forever
more.

Truth in this light, God's Light, is so powerful
and so piercing, there is no way you could lie, exaggerate, avoid,
or deny what you have done with God's gift to you, the gift of an
embodied life in the Earth realm replete with abundant opportunities
to learn and develop and grow - be the best that you can be.
This gift, the Earth life God gives us, comes with a catch: We are
to give the gift back.

We cannot keep the life we have on the Earth
realm, not our possessions or attachments or relationships. What
we can keep is our memories and our feelings of what we have integrated
into our heart of hearts from the experience of being here, plus
the love we have shared with others. This that we can keep enriches
God's experience of us as well as enriching our experience of ourselves
and one another. How joyful this is depends on what we did about
who we are.

Each gain or loss anyone makes affects everyone
else to some degree. That's because we are connected, somehow, as
sparks from the Mind of God. Everything created either has a soul
(independent power mass) or is capable of being ensouled (from out
of the group power mass). Because human forms contain larger
portions of a soul mass than many other types of form, they represent
opportunities of greater diversity, challenge, and involvement. Yet
even animals, minerals, plants, and planets, enfold degrees of ensoulment
replete with intelligence, feeling, and volition. Density of structure
or shape may seem to deny this, but the creative fire is ever-present,
nonetheless.

All souls are holy in God's Light, and all souls
are loved.

And all souls have a purpose for their existence
and a reason for being who or what they are.

Whatever form a soul empowers "fits"
in creation's story, for each soul has a job to do, a position to
fill in the greater scheme of things.

And all souls evolve. Nothing stays as it is
because nothing is static, regardless of how "otherwise"
conditions may appear to be.

Evolution is not restricted to linear progression.
It only seems so.

Thus, the drama of creation's story is unbounded
- neither limited by our perception of it, nor by our ability or
lack of ability to comprehend it. This drama is as stupendous as
it is terrifying, as awesome as it is wonderful, as miraculous as
it is mysterious, as beautiful as it is the ultimate act of all-consuming
love. To witness even a glimpse of such glory, to know the Real
Truth of it, leaves a mark so deep and so profound you are forever
uplifted and transformed.

You return from your NDE knowing we affect each
other because we are all part of each other, and that we affect
all parts of creation because all parts of creation interweave and
interrelate with all other parts. Any sense of aloneness or separation
dissolves in the Light of such knowing.

We each matter. And we are each challenged to "wake
up" and realize that we matter. Once we so awaken, our task
is to act accordingly.

To know is not enough. We must express that knowing.
How we do that is up to us.

Although we are each connected to the other and
to all others, we are individual in our choices, in the power of
our will, and in the product or result or consequence of our ever
having breathed a breath in the Earth realm. The responsibility
we have for this totality of our being-ness is as freeing and exciting
as it is humbling. And it represents high adventure.

The greatest fear we have in living out our Earth
life is not what might happen to us, but what might be expected
from us if we recognized who we are.

6. Dr. P.M.H. Atwater's Four Types of NDEs

P.M.H. Atwater has
identified four distinctive types of NDEs.
She discovered elements similar to those
described by Moody and Ring but different
patterning from what was billed as the
classical version; each pattern type was
accompanied by a subtle psychological
profile suggestive of other forces that
might be present. These four types have
consistently held up throughout two decades
of interviews, observations, and analysis
regardless of a person's age, education,
gender, culture, or religion. In her book,
Beyond the Light, P.M.H. Atwater used
separate chapters to discuss each of the
four types. Below is a shorter rendition of
the scenario patterns.

a. Initial Experience (Sometimes referred to as the "nonexperience")

Involves elements such as a loving nothingness,
the living dark, a friendly voice, or a brief out-of-body episode.
Usually experienced by those who seem to need the least amount of
evidence for proof of survival, or who need the least amount of
shakeup in their life at that point in time. Often, this becomes
a "seed" experience or an introduction to other ways of
perceiving and recognizing reality. Incident rate: 76% with child
experiencers, 20% with adult experiencers.

Encounter with a threatening void or stark limbo
or hellish purgatory, or scenes of a startling and unexpected indifference,
even "hauntings" from one's own past. Usually experienced
by those who seem to have deeply suppressed or repressed guilt,
fears, and angers and/or those who expect some kind of punishment
or discomfort after death. Incident rate: 3% with child experiencers,
15% with adult experiencers.

Heaven-like scenarios of loving family reunions
with those who have died previously, reassuring religious figures
or light beings, validation that life counts, affirmative and inspiring
dialogue. Usually experienced by those who most need to know how
loved they are and how important life is and how every effort has
a purpose in the overall scheme of things. Incident rate: 19% with
child experiencers, 47% with adult experiencers.

Exposure to otherworldly dimensions and scenes
beyond the individual's frame of reference; sometimes includes revelations
of greater truths. Seldom personal in content. Usually experienced
by those who are ready for a mind-stretching challenge and/or individuals
who are more apt to utilize (to whatever degree) the truths that
are revealed to them. Incident rate: 2% with child experiencers,
18% with adult experiencers.

Note: P.M.H. Atwater
has noticed that all four types can occur at the same time during
an NDE, can exist in varying combinations, or can spread out across
a series of episodes for a particular individual. Generally speaking,
however, each represents a distinctive type of experience occurring
but once to a given person.

"All you may
know of heaven or hell is within your own self."
- Edgar Cayce

P. M. H. Atwater connects the arrival of
the Indigo Children with the fulfillment
of the Fifth World of the Mayan Calendar
and other great prophecies, providing detailed
information about the world changes that
will take place before and after December
21, 2012, and the worldwide ascension of
energy now occurring, which will take humanity
to the next level of development.

P.M.H. Atwater gives details and deep insights
into what really happens when you die and
what it truly means. She also explores such
mysteries as heaven and hell, the soul's
existence after death, and the power of
prayer.

An in-depth study of children who have
experienced an NDE and the pattern of
aftereffects which follow. Atwater notes
that the child who returns from an NDE
is not the same child as before, but
is a "remodeled, rewired, reconfigured,
refined version of the original."
Atwater shows that understanding the
NDEs of children can help us prepare
for a quantum leap in the evolution
of humanity.

This 480-page single source book contains
all information pertinent to the NDE phenomenon,
both positive and negative, as seen from
360 degrees, including new cases and new
research, combined in a lively yet respectful
style, with five appendices. This book is
the "encyclopedia" of the NDE
and is the most comprehensive book in the
field of NDE studies.

An in-depth investigation of the dynamics
of NDE states based on over 3,000 interviews
with NDE survivors over a 16-year period.
These survivors include adults and children
from a variety of racial and cultural backgrounds.
Atwater describes the 4 types of NDEs and
the basic profile of the survivors of each
type. Included are descriptions of NDE-like
episodes and other anomalies, the full range
of NDE after-effects, "the light"
of enlightenment, revelations which NDE
survivors bring back, plus a host of material
on topics like electrical sensitivity, black
angels, and brain shift.

Based on extensive interviews with over
200 NDE survivors and thousands of their
friends and relatives. Atwater, herself
a survivor of 3 NDEs, examines the major
after-effects which survivors experience,
including: a shifted view of physical reality
and disorientation in the world of time
and space; expanded intuitive and psychic
abilities; spiritual transformation; difficulty
with communication and relationships and
an inability to personalize emotions and
feelings, especially those of love.

"Future
memory" allows people who have an NDE
to "live" life in advance and
remember the experience in detail when something
triggers that memory. Atwater has experienced
the future memory process firsthand following
her own three NDEs. She shows how these "rehearsals"
for future events differ from other modes
of futuristic awareness such as clairvoyance,
precognition, and deja vu. Atwater describes
how the unifying and permanent effect of
the NDE is a "brain shift" which
may be at the very core of existence itself
and indicative of higher evolutionary
development.

This groundbreaking book is the first serious
look at the NDEs of children. Atwater believes
these millennial children - who possess
heightened sensory and empathic abilities
acquired at birth or as a result of the
NDE - herald the presence of a new race
of people on Earth. Atwater explores how
these special children will dramatically
impact the human condition by helping humankind
rediscover the spiritual truths needed to
survive in our radically changing world.